(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for escaping from a building on fire, by which a large number of suferers boarding on a gondola may safely go down when a building is burnt.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
It has been required that an apparatus of this type can control a descending speed against a load such as suferers taken on a gondola and the weight of the gondola. It has been proposed to use a brake device as said control mechanism. The brake device has a difficulty in controlling the speed and the speed easily increases. Further, an accident resulting from a frictional heat is apt to take place.
So, the present inventor has proposed an apparatus adopting a so-called escape mode (Japanese Patent Application No. Sho. 62-171687) to solve the problems.
The apparatus according to said Japanese Patent Application is basically similar to one shown as a preferred embodiment. A pin-wheel and an anchor were pivoted on a body to be descended and an upper guide block and a lower guide block for receiving pin-rollers rollers to turn by the anchor and escaping them were alternately disposed to control a rotation of a rolling drum rotated integrally with the pin carriage.
With the above described apparatus of escape mode, if the upper guide block is pressed down by a descending force resulting from the rotation of the pin-roller, the anchor is swung toward one direction by a component of force in an inclined direction of the guide block, while, if the pin-roller is fallen from the upper guide block to the lower guide block by the swing of the anchor, the swing of the anchor is stopped and the anchor is swung in an opposite direction by a component of force pressing the lower guide block. That is to say, the swing of the anchor is carried out by the component of force in the inclined direction of the upper guide block and the lower guide block to control the rotation of the pin carriage and the rolling drum. Accordingly, the apparatus of escape mode according to Japanese Patent Application No. Sho. 62-171687 exhibited a remarkably increased controlling capacity in comparison with the apparatus of friction mode. In addition, there was not the possibility of accident due to the frictional heat at all.
However, if the load is excessively increased, also a component of force is excessively increased, also a component of force is increased in proportion to the load, so that the swinging range of the anchor is excessively increased, whereby the anchor is drawn into the pin-wheel, and thus it is difficult to stably control the descending speed. In addition, a problem had occurred in that it is difficult to maintain an appointed suitable speed although slightly in comparison with the case of friction mode.